Zone 05 : "City Zone"

Am I the only one who likes this sunset look? I think it has some awesome contrast with the foreground and generally looks superb. Granted, you could recolor the buildings to look less flat and more like there's actual texture to them that the light is shining on, but I digress—I'm really digging the overall feel you've set up.

Am I the only one who likes this sunset look? I think it has some awesome contrast with the foreground and generally looks superb. Granted, you could recolor the buildings to look less flat and more like there's actual texture to them that the light is shining on, but I digress—I'm really digging the overall feel you've set up.

Perhaps then, with buildings and even animations changed (depending on the sky color), we can have something like this:
Act1- Sunset Sky
Act2 and 3- Night

I still feel like the colour scheme of the level could be improved upon, so I am throwing in a pallette swap for the foreground too. I think the current ice blue over a dark blue background isn't enough of a contrast perhaps. So just for fun -

This post has been edited by fifthelephant: 05 January 2009 - 04:50 PM

I think the orange could work in the background if it was used sparingly to give the city a sort of glow/haze but as stated before we already have an orange heavy background for the Circus level, so maybe a different colour?

Also if we stick with orange it begins to look a bit too much like Chemical Plant Zone

EDIT: personally I would like to see an attempt at a daytime city level, maybe with it getting dirtier the lower you go and bright crisp colours near the top, like your classic 80's sci-fi view of the future (or like Project Eden for anyone whos played that)

Not a wise color choice. This structure is not made of concrete or any rock-ish material, it's made of metal, you can clearly see in the texture. That light-brown gives the sensation that is made of rock or brick. Blue really fits better.

QUOTE (fifthelephant @ Jan 5 2009, 04:50 PM) [post="263550"][/quote]I have to agree with Rave... This one reminds me of sand or something. D: It doesn't blend well at all with the background. A bit too much contrast for me.

QUOTE (PC2 @ Jan 6 2009, 12:36 AM) [post="263640"][/quote]I have to agree with Rave... This one reminds me of sand or something. D: It doesn't blend well at all with the background. A bit too much contrast for me.
[/quote]
I was going for a concrete look... I was going to suggest it be called "concrete jungle zone", I thought it would be kind of fun.

Oh gawd no. I really don't want to see bad palette swaps of existing art. If you think it needs a different color scheme, then I think it would need completely new art as well. The level was designed with a certain look, a certain feel in mind. If you drastically change the palette like that it totally takes that all away.

Oh gawd no. I really don't want to see bad palette swaps of existing art. If you think it needs a different color scheme, then I think it would need completely new art as well. The level was designed with a certain look, a certain feel in mind. If you drastically change the palette like that it totally takes that all away.

I can understand people who are against pallette swaps of the original sonic game art, but swapping pallettes of new art should be welcomed if the change is for the better (even if you don't necessarily like the swaps that I have done).

Besides, the original art doesn't look like metal, it looks like ice or perhaps a kind of glass. Most cities aren't even made of ice, metal or glass, most are concrete or brick. So while the current art isn't bad, it certainly isn't suited to the city theme (I'm talking foreground).

Besides, the original art doesn't look like metal, it looks like ice or perhaps a kind of glass. Most cities aren't even made of ice, metal or glass, most are concrete or brick. So while the current art isn't bad, it certainly isn't suited to the city theme (I'm talking foreground).

Oh gawd no. I really don't want to see bad palette swaps of existing art. If you think it needs a different color scheme, then I think it would need completely new art as well. The level was designed with a certain look, a certain feel in mind. If you drastically change the palette like that it totally takes that all away.

I can understand people who are against pallette swaps of the original sonic game art, but swapping pallettes of new art should be welcomed if the change is for the better (even if you don't necessarily like the swaps that I have done).

Besides, the original art doesn't look like metal, it looks like ice or perhaps a kind of glass. Most cities aren't even made of ice, metal or glass, most are concrete or brick. So while the current art isn't bad, it certainly isn't suited to the city theme (I'm talking foreground).

First of all, yes, we like changes for the better, but this isn't better, is it?
This is a Robotnik city, thus, it must be made of metal. Scrap Brain wasn't made of concrete, nor Death Egg. And I have yet to see a badnik made of concrete.
And you can clearly see in the texture that the structures are made of this kind of metal, but with a bit of surrealistic detail added to it, which, like Rika Chou said, is all about Classic Sonic.
Also, if it really were made of glass or ice, it would be a lot more brighter and shinier than that, and would have transparency applied to it in the mid-tone.

I still think the pallette is a bit wrong, maybe I was going too extreme with my edits. So how about this as a bit more refined (ignore the background as I was just playing with different colours etc), I've just made the metal look a bit more like brushed steel or something... Nothing too extreme, it's just a tweak.

Oh hey, by the way, that thing in the top left of the BG in that shot was stolen from another game. It's likley that no one will ever recognize it though. Also the stars were heavily inspired by the ones in SSZ from Sonic CD... but those can easily be changed.